Moody's has long-term ratings and assessments of multiple banks on review for credit downgrades. Below are the banks:

• First Merchants Corporation
• F.N.B. Corporation
• Fulton Financial Corporation
• Old National Bancorp
• Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation
• WaFd, Inc.

And here is the reasoning reproduced in each of the Moody's announcements although there can be additional specific information for a particular institution: "[The bank's] ratings have been placed on review for downgrade because, as a regional bank with a substantial concentration in commercial real estate (CRE) loans, it faces ongoing asset quality and profitability pressures as higher-for-longer interest rates heighten the longstanding risks of CRE for banks' creditworthiness, especially during cycle downturns."

This explanation is different from the closures by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank over concerns about solvency and liquidity. In those cases, the banks heavily invested in long-term bonds like Treasurys or mortgage-backed securities, but at times when interest rates were near zero. Nothing wrong with that except the banks gave them accounting treatments of hold-to-maturity, meaning the instruments could retain their face valuation so long as they weren't sold earlier. However, their market value dropped precipitously when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to fight inflation. The value of the banks' major assets dropped, and depositors quickly took out their funds through electronic transfers, raising the question of whether there would be enough liquid assets to redeem ongoing withdrawals.

In this case, Moody's concern is over the valuations of CRE loans and the ultimate ability of the borrowers to refinance their properties or add enough equity to settle their debts.